Bringing Alcohol Home When Flying

[Yvonne]

Please excuse me if this has been asked before. I did a search and it mostly came up with how to smuggle alcohol on board, and this is not what I need to know.

 

What I need to know is how do we bring alcohol home, that we purchase on board the ship, when we're flying.

 

The last time we cruised my husband's sister and her husband cruised with us, but they drove home so they took our garment bag and our bottles of alcohol with them so we didn't have to worry about how to take them on the plane.

 

This time we are cruising on our own but I know my husband is going to want to purchase 2-4 bottles to bring home. I know we can't carry them on the plane with us, do we have to put them in the checked luggage? Or is there some other way?

 

We've thought about sending them home through Fed Ex, is that a possibility?

 

I know there has to be a way, so how do others handle that situation?

[tmitchell82]

I have packed it in my check baggage. Absent of shipping it home, which is an option so long as you can find a place to do it at after the cruise and before the flight (places like the UPS store will pack it for you), there is not a good option with the TSA restrictions. I have never had a problem with it in my check baggage. I will wrap it up in various cloths, place it in the middle of a sturdy bag, and surround it with other cloths and such. If you know you were going to buy something and put it in checked baggage and wanted to really secure it, you could always bring duck tape and bubble wrap.

[aohkay]

I have never had a problem with it in my check baggage. I will wrap it up in various cloths, place it in the middle of a sturdy bag, and surround it with other cloths and such. If you know you were going to buy something and put it in checked baggage and wanted to really secure it, you could always bring duck tape and bubble wrap.

 

Agreed, put it in your checked luggage; those bottles can get heavy and you don't want to go over the weight restrictions with your carry-on! :p

[PennyAgain]

Putting liquids in your checked bag without having breakage depends on the actual sort of bag you are intending to use.

 

Hard side bag vs soft side bag.

 

If all you own are soft side bags, you may not be money ahead on this project.

[scottbee]

Please excuse me if this has been asked before. I did a search and it mostly came up with how to smuggle alcohol on board, and this is not what I need to know.

 

What I need to know is how do we bring alcohol home, that we purchase on board the ship, when we're flying.

 

The last time we cruised my husband's sister and her husband cruised with us, but they drove home so they took our garment bag and our bottles of alcohol with them so we didn't have to worry about how to take them on the plane.

 

This time we are cruising on our own but I know my husband is going to want to purchase 2-4 bottles to bring home. I know we can't carry them on the plane with us, do we have to put them in the checked luggage? Or is there some other way?

 

We've thought about sending them home through Fed Ex, is that a possibility?

 

I know there has to be a way, so how do others handle that situation?

 

If you're flying internationally on the way home (you didn't mention the routing you're taking), it's easier to get duty free in the departure area of the airport, post security. If you're flying domestically, you'll need to pack it in your checked luggage.

[geoherb]

The shop on the Emerald Princess sold special bubble wrap bags that had a leak-proof seal. They were relatively cheap, either $1.50 or $2. Fortunately I did not have a test of whether the leak-proof seal worked as my bottles survived the plane trip home.

[CruiserBruce]

 

This time we are cruising on our own but I know my husband is going to want to purchase 2-4 bottles to bring home.

 

You didn't mention where you are flying from. Your signature implies Florida. Just know if the flight is from outside the country, you are limited to one bottle per person. Above that will be taxed.

 

I don't know for a fact, but imagine it applies to alcohol brought into the country by ship as well.

[aohkay]

Just know if the flight is from outside the country, you are limited to one bottle per person. Above that will be taxed.

 

This is if the OP intends to make all purchases from a Duty Free store.

 

One can also purchase bottles at port (s). We brought a bottle of wine back from France, Spain & Italy. We each then purchased the one bottle limit of liquor from the Duty Free store.

[Yvonne]

Sorry I didn't give enough info.

 

We are flying from Detroit, MI to Orlando, FL. We will have a week on vacation before the cruise, then after the cruise we will have another 4 nights before our flight home from Orlando to Detroit. After the cruise we will have plenty of time to find a UPS place, or can even find it before the trip over the internet I'm sure. Sounds like maybe that would be our best bet. We have soft-sided luggage, and maybe we could get it packed well enough to survive the flight, but to be safer maybe just ship it home via UPS and pay for insurance in case it does get broken even that way.

 

Thanks for the info, everyone.

[kitty9]

Are you planning on buying the alcohol on the ship or in ports? That makes a big difference with regards to US Customs. If you purchase on the ship, and you go over the US Custom's allowance, your name will be submitted to the Custom's agent by the ship and you will have to report to the room where Custom's is set up, on the morning of disembarkation. You will have to bring the bottles with you and will be charged duty. This is meant as a bit of a tip for you.

[okbowler]

They make styrofoam inserts to go in cardboard boxes to ship liquids in, if you check with a UPS store or Mail Boxes or any store that packs items for shipping they should have them. I think that I just recently saw an ad for UPS that gave a guanantee that your mechandise would reach its destination unharmed. Bill

[cruisemom42]

If you are going to pay to have them shipped back home by UPS, are you really gaining anything by buying them on your trip? :confused::confused:

 

For something as heavy as bottles of liquor, I'd think the cost to ship wouldn't be cheap....

[okbowler]

If you are going to pay to have them shipped back home by UPS, are you really gaining anything by buying them on your trip? :confused::confused:

 

For something as heavy as bottles of liquor, I'd think the cost to ship wouldn't be cheap....

 

I drive to the FL ports but the Scotch I drink sells for about $40 liter in this area and I nornally get it in St Thoma or St Maarten for $16.80 to $20. The cheaper price is a case price. It probably would still be a saving if I had to ship.:) Bill

[paul929207]

I drive to the FL ports but the Scotch I drink sells for about $40 liter in this area and I nornally get it in St Thoma or St Maarten for $16.80 to $20. The cheaper price is a case price. It probably would still be a saving if I had to ship.:) Bill

If you are buying a case, you will be way over your customs limit. Be sure to find all the costs to be sure it is worth the hassle.

[bonsarsam]

Hello

 

My family and I travelled on HAL-Westerdam cruise last year, our TA gave us 3 bottles of champagne. We did not drink it all because we brought our own wine aboard. So I went to the gift shop and asked for the bottle to be air machined bubbled wrapped. It cost me $1 but DO NOT wait until the last day to do this, they were running out of bags and a couple of air machines were not working. I had to go back and forth to the gift shop about 5 times to get the one bottle bubbled wrapped. I should have made a fuss and got it free but didn't.

 

The bottle made it home by plane in my soft suitcase, still layered in clothing. The only thing about being machine air bubble wrapped is it pretty bulky, it is almost the size of 2 bottles. BUT, it made it home

 

Good luck

[cruisemom42]

I drive to the FL ports but the Scotch I drink sells for about $40 liter in this area and I nornally get it in St Thoma or St Maarten for $16.80 to $20. The cheaper price is a case price. It probably would still be a saving if I had to ship.:) Bill

 

Wow, I had no idea!

[suezyq50]

When we flew, we didn't think it was worth it. Thought we would have to pay additional fees for our luggage being over the weight limit. Boy, did we hate that!

[okbowler]

If you are buying a case, you will be way over your customs limit. Be sure to find all the costs to be sure it is worth the hassle.

 

If you buy your alcohol in St Thomas you can get an extra 4 liters duty free for a total of 5 duty free. Two people, 10 liters. I have never been charged duty on the alcohol that I bring back over the legal limit and I always declare the total amount. Paul I'm not sure but I think duty would be less than $3 a liter for the overage. Besides I can't carry more than two 6 liter boxes .:) Bill

[Underwatr]

Wow. Lots of misinformation here.

 

You can't carry liters of liquor onto a plane that you didn't buy at the airport duty-free shop. The weight restriction has nothing to do with it. You can't carry on a container of liquid larger than 3.2 ounces, and only in a quantity that fits in a quart-size ziplock bag.

 

Whether you need to pay duty on liquor you're bringing back into the country has nothing to do with whether you bought it at a duty-free shop or not.

 

If you're arriving from one of the 24 Caribbean Basin countries, you may import two liters of alcohol, as long as one of the liters was produced in the Caribbean Basin. http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/travel/vacation/kbyg/kbyg_regulations.ctt/kbyg_regulations.pdf - (This is CPB's "Know Before You Go" publication - see pages 14-15)

 

If you travel to a U.S. Insular Possession (e.g., U.S. Virgin Islands) and one or more Caribbean or Andan countries (on a cruise, for example), you may include five liters of alcoholic beverages in your duty-free exemption, but one of them must be a product of an insular possession. Four may be products of other countries (same reference as above, pages 15-16).

 

Duty on liquor above the limits is 3% plus any Internal Revene Service tax.

[geoherb]

I brought back eight bottles on one cruise and paid around $12 in duty. I learned it wasn't worth it after a bottle broke. Now I look for one or two good bottles and don't bother with cheap rum.

[beachchick]

Wow. Lots of misinformation here.

 

You can't carry liters of liquor onto a plane that you didn't buy at the airport duty-free shop. The weight restriction has nothing to do with it. You can't carry on a container of liquid larger than 3.2 ounces, and only in a quantity that fits in a quart-size ziplock bag.

 

Whether you need to pay duty on liquor you're bringing back into the country has nothing to do with whether you bought it at a duty-free shop or not.

 

If you're arriving from one of the 24 Caribbean Basin countries, you may import two liters of alcohol, as long as one of the liters was produced in the Caribbean Basin. http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/travel/vacation/kbyg/kbyg_regulations.ctt/kbyg_regulations.pdf - (This is CPB's "Know Before You Go" publication - see pages 14-15)

 

If you travel to a U.S. Insular Possession (e.g., U.S. Virgin Islands) and one or more Caribbean or Andan countries (on a cruise, for example), you may include five liters of alcoholic beverages in your duty-free exemption, but one of them must be a product of an insular possession. Four may be products of other countries (same reference as above, pages 15-16).

 

Duty on liquor above the limits is 3% plus any Internal Revene Service tax.

 

I don't think anyone is suggesting this. The OP mentioned knowing that purchased alcohol can't be brought on flights in carryon. Because of that and the per bag costs most airlines have for checked luggage, we don't bother to bring home anything these days.

 

I have a question about "plus any Internal Revenue Service tax." What tax might that be? Does the IRS receive reports from Immigration about duty paid and somehow charge an income tax on that? If so, how? It's not income, wouldn't be included on a tax return, wouldn't be reported on a 1099, so how could it be taxable? Duty is paid for the same way as, for example, you pay for milk or fees or anything else where you take your after tax dollars and buy goods or services. Could you clarify what you mean?

 

beachchick

[Underwatr]

I don't think anyone is suggesting this. The OP mentioned knowing that purchased alcohol can't be brought on flights in carryon. Because of that and the per bag costs most airlines have for checked luggage, we don't bother to bring home anything these days.

I had interpreted post #3 to imply that that poster thought otherwise: "Agreed, put it in your checked luggage; those bottles can get heavy and you don't want to go over the weight restrictions with your carry-on!" But maybe BC humor and British humor are similar - I never understand some of the humorous posts over on the Cunard section here.

 

I have a question about "plus any Internal Revenue Service tax." What tax might that be? Could you clarify what you mean?

All I know is what it says on the Customs & Border Protection brochure I linked to. This is where IRS taxation is mentioned. In addition to income tax the IRS also administers federal taxation of alcohol (which has been around much longer than income tax), I believe. This isn't an income tax issue.

 

I searched on Google for a few minutes but I couldn't find any current data on the federal tax rate on liquor.

[jollycruise]

When we packed our liquor the ship wrapped in bubble wrap for us. I then rolled each bottle in a couple pieces of clothes and placed it in the middle of our soft sided suitcase's. I used our shoes to protect the top and bottom of each bottle by nesting them inside the shoe. It worked out and great and nothing broke. Happy sailing!

[beachchick]

I had interpreted post #3 to imply that that poster thought otherwise: "Agreed, put it in your checked luggage; those bottles can get heavy and you don't want to go over the weight restrictions with your carry-on!" But maybe BC humor and British humor are similar - I never understand some of the humorous posts over on the Cunard section here.

 

All I know is what it says on the Customs & Border Protection brochure I linked to. This is where IRS taxation is mentioned. In addition to income tax the IRS also administers federal taxation of alcohol (which has been around much longer than income tax), I believe. This isn't an income tax issue.

 

I searched on Google for a few minutes but I couldn't find any current data on the federal tax rate on liquor.

 

I had missed that reference in post #3. You may be right about BC and British humor (or that is, humour). I don't understand some of it and I'm sure some of my US (attempted) humor seems strange to them. Oh well.

 

While I knew that the IRS handles more than just income taxes, I thought CBP handled all fees and federal taxes related to alcohol and other personally imported items. Interesting. I knew that individual states have their own regulations and can impose taxes. Some of the rules seem strange to me, but I know that some are holdovers from way back when.

 

Here's a (possibly) amusing story: My sister was spending several months in Minnesota. There was a winery local to us (central coast CA) that was selling off its stock. We were able to pick it up for $3.99/bottle that normally retailed for between $10.99 and $17.99. We bought about seven cases total (mixed varietals). Coincidentally, my sister and some colleagues were shopping for wine one day and her colleagues wanted to buy a few bottles of that wine because they really liked it. She noticed it was going for $30/bottle. She asked me to ship a few to her because even with shipping it would save a bundle. I had never tried doing something like that before and discovered that not only could I not ship four bottles to her (I told the truth when the postal clerk asked what was in the box), but friends of ours who are vintners couldn't either. Her DH was going to fly back and visit her the following week. I was allowed to have bottles shipped to him (northern CA) and he schlepped them on the plane (pre liquid restrictions for carryons and pre hefty fees for nearly all checked luggage) to Minnesota. I think the cost including shipping up to him made it about $7/bottle. Definitely a great savings, but what a fuss to get them there.

 

beachchick

[Underwatr]

Another wrinkle is that state laws on importation of liquor may be more restrictive than the federal laws. When I return to the US from overseas my point of entry is usually Philadelphia, and PA restricts how much alcohol one can carry into the state (for a couple it comes to about 3 bottles of wine). Even though Federal law is much less restrictive, CBP will enforce the state law applicable where the entry point is located.